Major differences between Online & Offline writing?

For example, if you were going to publish an essay online, how would that writing (to be more effective) differ from offline writing

Insofar as adherence to standards in grammar, mechanics, and basic structure, I would say no difference, but you might want to work at being as concise as possible. Reading a longer essay online might be more time-consuming than a reader would be willing to put in.

Shorter paragraphs might look less intimidating to the average online researcher.

Thanks for your feedback, Ann.

I agree with most of what you write; however, when you write online, you’re playing in a different ballpark than you’re in offline.

P.S. Some acceptable ways to write online would, doubtlessly, outrage a grammar teacher. This is especially true with Internet Marketers.

Just please don't tell this former grammar teacher that you might get less readers if you follow Standard guidelines.

Yes, Internet marketing folks focus on getting the most wanted response, not satisfying or following Standard guidelines, kinda. That response includes selling a product, building a list, and so on.

“Conversational writing” works best for Internet marketers. Thus, when you listen to people talk, how often is the conversation grammatically correct?

Of course, your target market determines your writing style.

OK, but you still can't have less readers; you can only have fewer readers.

Informal is good; slang is fine, but if you are marketing to anyone with an education, you still need to use accurate terms.

It's about knowing which rules you can break.

Yoyr OP was a question; I gave you my answer. If you already knew the answer, why did you ask?

Ann, I do have some of the answers because I just read an ebook about writing online. Nevertheless, I’m far from an expert on the subject.

Therefore, I thought I might get some “fill-in-the-blank”, if you will, answers here. And, you’ve been helpful.

Thank you!

We are authors and tend to own our words in a way that non-authors do not. Earlier this year, I was asked to write an article for a website. I used some informal language (grammatically correct but casual) because online readers prefer a less stilted style of writing. The owner of the site edited out the familiar language and replaced it with more formal language. However, she introduced grammatical mistakes (she omitted a verb in one of the sentences!), which I found more annoying than the actual changes she made. My name was attached to an article with glaring mistakes. I asked for the corrections and they were made. So, to an author, getting it right is more important than the style of writing.

Most good writers are touchy about outside edits.

I'm touchy about edits that add mistakes in an article with my name on it, and it happens often as I write quite a bit of material that is edited.

The difference in online writing for me is embedding links, inserting pictures, and including meta tags for google search in titles and content. None of that is necessary for offline writing. Also, titles are very important for online google search.

Good points, D.K.

Some heavy-hitter, Internet marketers are moving almost exclusively to content, video marketing.